Ben Carson's newest delusion: Gunshot wound to head "not nearly as horrible" as abstract threat to gun rights

Neurosurgeon-turned-conservative activist explains how operating on bullet wounds made him more pro-gun

Published April 13, 2015 2:15PM (EDT)

  (AP/Lenny Ignelzi)
(AP/Lenny Ignelzi)

Ben Carson's capacity for saying delusional things that test (and often cross) the boundaries of logic and rationality is at once impressive and terrifying -- and it is a capacity that also seems to have expended at the National Rifle Association Convention on Friday, when Republican presidential hopeful after Republican presidential hopeful competed back-to-back for who could be most supportive of gun rights.

Still attempting to gird himself against gun lobby backlash over his questioning the easy accessibility of semi-automatic weapons in 2013, Carson assured NRA convention-goers any concerns he may have had about the Second Amendment have been cleared up. "I've learned how to express myself better," the conservative pundit said. "I am extremely pro-Second Amendment."

But Carson also harkened back to his days as a neurosurgeon for an example of why he's so "extremely" in favor of gun rights, claiming his medical career helped him understand the disparate tragedies of suffering a gunshot wound, and being at all restricted in one's ability to inflict a gunshot wound.

"I spent many a night operating on people with gunshot wounds to their heads," Carson said. "It is not nearly as horrible as having a population that is defenseless against a group of tyrants who have arms."

Carson -- the right-wing activist who has asserted that prison rape proves homosexuality is a choice, who has blamed feminists for rioting in Ferguson, who has suggested Palestinians just "sort of slip" down to Egypt and so, so much more--has really outdone himself this time. This is delusional even for him.


By Jenny Kutner

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